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BALTIMORE — The crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter James Rankin (WLM 555) set the historic Francis Scott Key Memorial Buoy in the Patapsco River, Maryland, Tuesday.
Formalized as an annual Coast Guard duty in 1980, this year marks the 46th setting of the historic buoy by a Coast Guard cutter’s crew.
The specially designed aid to navigation commemorates Francis Scott Key, revered author of the poem “Defense of Fort M’Henry,” that was later retitled “The Star Spangled Banner.” Key’s poem became the official national anthem of the United States in 1931.
The buoy is set each year near the spot Key observed the 1814 British bombardment of Fort McHenry and felt inspired to write the national anthem’s lyrics. The buoy is removed each year before winter.
The James Rankin is a coastal buoy tender homeported at the Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore. The cutter’s crew is responsible for 346 buoys in the Upper Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, including the Eastern Shore, Tangier Sound, Annapolis, and the Potomac River.
Collectively, in 2025 these aids facilitate more than $62 billion of commerce to the Port of Baltimore. The cutter’s crew also is equipped to perform other Coast Guard missions, such as homeland security, search and rescue, marine environmental protection, and domestic ice breaking.
- USCG -